Quality Data Relies on Quality Reagents

The ability to culture cells in vitro has provided scientists with insight into many tissue and organ systems in the human body. In order to obtain high quality, reliable results, it is imperative that experiments are conducted using high-quality cell culture reagents. Of critical importance is the quality of cell culture media to ensure the phenotypic integrity of cells in culture and reduce experiment variability. At Lifeline®, we offer a wide range of cell culture media, produced using stringent quality control processes, optimized for the growth of many cell and tissue types as well as complete media kits to maintain undifferentiated stem cells, or induce stem cell differentiation into multiple lineages. Our media products do not contain antimicrobials and are free of phenol red, a pH indicator that may result in unwanted off-target effects to ensure the accuracy of your results.

The Lifeline catalog offers a wide range of media products for a variety of cell types. Find the media you need today and read on to see how researchers are using our media to facilitate their research goals.

• Human blood cell medium: RPMI Media
• Human endothelial cell media
  • VascuLife® VEGF Endothelial Cell Media and Vasculife EnGS Endothelial Cell Media
  • VascuLife VEGF-Mv Microvascular Cell Media and VascuLife EnGS-Mv Microvascular Cell Media
• Human epithelial cell media
  • Air-Liquid interface epithelial differentiation medium: HBTEC Media
  • Airway epithelial medium: BronchiaLife™ Media
  • Bladder epithelial medium: UroLife™ Media
  • Corneal epithelial medium: OcuLife™ Media
  • Female Reproductive medium: ReproLife™ Media  and ReproLife CX Media
  • Keratinocyte medium: DermaLife K Media
  • Mammary epithelial medium: MammaryLife™ Media
  • Prostate epithelial medium: ProstaLife™ Media
  • Renal epithelial medium: RenaLife™ Media
• Human fibroblast cell medium:
  • FibroLife® Serum-Free Media, FibroLife S2 Media, and FibroLife Xeno-Free Media
• Human melanocyte medium: DermaLife M Media and DermaLife Ma Media
• Human neural stem cell medium: StemLife™ NSC Media
• Human smooth muscle cell medium: VascuLife SMC Media
• Human skeletal muscle cell medium: StemLife Sk Media
• Human stem cell media
  • StemLife MSC Media
  • StemLife MSC-BM Media
  • FibroLife S2 Media
  • AdipoLife™ Dfkt-1 Adipogenesis Media and AdipoLife Dfkt-2 Adipogenesis Media
  • OsteoLife™ Osteogenesis Media
  • ChondroLife™ Chondrogenesis Media

Research Using Lifeline Cell Culture Medium Kits

Several recent publications highlight the use of Lifeline cell culture medium to successfully culture Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC), Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells (PASMC), Human Keratinocytes, and Human Melanocytes.

The first paper is by Uzarski and Colleagues and they utilized Lifeline VascuLife VEGF Media Complete Kit to isolate and culture Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC’s) for their experiments. They established a novel protocol to generate functional vascular grafts from the HUVEC cells in perfusion bioreactors by modulating in vitro flow conditions that recapitulate natural physiology to mitigate the occurrence of thrombotic occlusion. Under physiologically modeled pulse dynamic (PMPD) growth conditions, the endothelialized vascular grafts express a nonactivated phenotype that is able to inhibit peripheral cell adhesion and smooth muscle cell hyperplasia – the two main mechanisms by which occlusive failure occurs leading to poor clinical outcomes. The improved perfusion dynamics direct the endothelial cells to a more desirable phenotype that may ultimately decrease clinical failures in vascular bypass grafting.

Zucker and Colleagues utilized the VascuLife SMC Complete Media Kit to isolate Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells (PASMC’s) from normal donors and patients suffering from Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) to study the role of Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein 1 (LRP1), a protein important for vascular homeostasis, in the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Impaired crosstalk between endothelial cells (EC) and smooth muscle cells (SMC) has been demonstrated to play a central role in PH pathogenesis. The underlying molecular mechanisms modulating the SMC phenotype are investigated here. The researchers found that Platelet-Derived Growth Factor-BB (PDGF-BB) upregulated the expression of LRP1 in PASMCs of patients with IPAH. High levels of LRP1 promotes a phenotypic switch in PASMCs from a contractile (differentiated) to a synthetic/proliferative (de-differentiated) state implicating its role in vascular remodeling that manifests in PH.

The final publication by Phillips investigates differences in toxicity and the mechanism of cell death caused by Hexamethylene Diisocyanate (HDI) and HDI Isocyanurate, common components of sprayed polyurethane coatings. The author isolated normal human keratinocytes using DermaLife K Medium Complete Kits, normal human melanocytes using DermaLife M Medium Complete Kits, and fibroblasts from neonatal foreskin tissue for toxicology studies. Results from the ApoTox Glo Assay, which measures apoptotic caspase 3/7 activity, a key protein in the apoptotic pathway, demonstrated that the isocyanates kill cells rapidly by cell necrosis, not apoptosis. Additionally, while no inter-individual variability (i.e. age, race, gender) was observed, differential toxicities were found in the three cell types studied. The calculated LC50 values associated with HDI Isocyanurate oligomer exposure was much lower than HDI Diisocyanate monomer suggesting that the oligomer may have a large impact on overall exposure that is not being accounted for in current regulatory standards. Taken together, the rapid skin absorption and higher cytotoxicity of the HDI oligomer indicates that special care should be taken to prevent skin exposure to this compound.

Here at Lifeline, we want to hear how you are using our cells and media to further your research. Contact us with your published study and it could be featured in our next blog!